Merry Christmas everyone

Merry christmas, fijne kerstdagen, frohe Weihnachten og glaedelig jul! Hope you’ll have awonderful day filled with love, food and presents.

To get you in the Christmas mood here’s a video by ad agency Mother London, who gave away their 10,000 USD Christmas budget in a very special way.

And here’s another fun Christmas video from another ad agency in London, Ogilvy.

Where We Work – the book

Last year I wrote about ‘This Aint No Disco‘, a website where creative (ad) agencies can show their often amazing offices. In 2010 their first book will come out! Check it out here.

by Ian McCallam

Uxus Office Amsterdam

 

My fav TEDxAmsterdam talks online!

On the 20th November, the very first TEDxAmsterdam took place at KIT. On their website they claim the following about the limited group of people who will be able to attend due to a strict invite only policy: “The diverse audience – CEOs, scientists, creatives, philanthropists – is almost as extraordinary as the speakers, who have included Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Paul Simon, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck and Bono.” I think there was an extra category created for me, namely ‘lucky bastard’.

Anyway, they finally managed to post the talk I enjoyed the most, which is Bjarke Ingels’ ‘Yes is More‘. Here you’ll also find a beautiful performance by Amsterdam singer Karsu Dönmez, love the second song. One last talk I would really recommend is photographer Hans Aarsman’s about the mysterious ways of beauty in photography

Things I have learned in ‘09

As I was sick for a few days I had enough time to think about everything I wanted (and did not want) to think about. Maybe it’s because my first wisdom tooth is coming up, but I also thought about the past year and all that I’ve learned. Of course I have developed myself and learned many life lessons the past year, but I won’t bore you with that. At the end of the year lists seem to appear everywhere, so why not join the herd for once? Below you’ll find a list of – what might appear to be random – things that I learned in 2009. As I said before, there is no such thing as useless knowledge!

-  A DSLR takes much nicer pictures than my old DSC (both Canon)
-  Only Irish whiskey has the extra e (instead of Scottish whisky), which they like to say it stands for enjoyment
- Rutger Hauer is a very nice man who likes two sugars in his coffee
- I can’t seem to celebrate carnival without getting sick afterwards
- Festivals are still as fun as two years ago
- Cats can be pretty damn cute
- I really can call some of  my friends in the middle of the night, and they will pick up
- Dutch people will dress up like anything for free fuel
- Riding around in a shopping card means guaranteed bruises
- Drinking vodka from a detox cup is not good
- Actually, anything coming from a detox cup has made me sick

(c) Peter Koenig

- I still can’t control myself when going into a bookstore
- Doel isn’t entirely empty yet
- Ze Frank is as funny live as he was on The Show
- Amsterdam is even prettier by night
- Foreign guys somehow still attract me more than Dutch for no apparent reason
-  Work isn’t always as fun and as important as you might think
-  Talking to strangers can be a good thing
-  TEDxAmsterdam was as cool as anticipated
- My little finger size is more an 11 than a 12 (ergo I lost my ring)
- Stop dying my hair actually makes it look better
- Twitter is more addictive than one might think
- Stewardess flatmates suck
- Sequins weren’t only cool when I was born (in the ’80s)
- n8 is really cool, afterparties not so much
- Being the only Dutch in a German/American bachelorette party is fun
- I can do the electric slide like a true middle-aged American
- Gay saunas in Amsterdam are also used for art exhibitions/launch parties
- A trip to Copenhagen showed me that it is still my favourite city in the world (after Amsterdam)
- It’s lonely without friends and family
- Paris is not too bad
- Going into crazy rides after drinking a few Maß at Oktoberfest doesn’t make you sick
- You can’t trust millionaire men, even if they have a daughter your own age
-  Things might look bad, but it could always be worse.

Do with this information what you want :-)

This is how I feel

There is no such thing as useless knowledge

And that’s definitely not the case for the daily facts they put up on Learn Something Every Day. UK design agency Young is behind this website filled with funny comics with random facts. You can order the prints and t-shirts here. Cool is that you can submit your own fact at fact@learnsomethingeveryday.co.uk and they might just use it!

Since I had a very intelligent tweet about ketchup today, this one made me smile:

I love to read

Test

Daily smile

I follow the online comic Toothpaste for Dinner every day (just as the Dutch comic Fokke & Sukke). It’s always good to start the day with a smile so here’s today’s comic:

 

Talking with Asteriks - (c) Toothpaste for Dinner

Check out one of the other 2,000 comics here, or even order your own personalised comic.

 

Data is beautiful

 At least according to PLOT, Wieden + Kennedy’s (renowned ad agency for those who don’t know) own line of “contemporary jewellery, with a conceptual twist”. Lisa Prince and Nicholla Longley, both working at W+K London, noticed in their daily job that data can be presented in an aesthetical way. They decided to bring data and beauty together in the form of a jewelry line and PLOT is the result. Below for example you see a piece of jewelry which are actually the silver and oil prices from 1979-2009 when you take a closer look.

PLOT - Silver & Oil price 1979-2009PLOT - Silver and Oil Detail 1979-2009

PLOT - Silver and Oil Detail 1979-2009

 I love the concept, although the execution might need a bit more work. Of course W+K wouldn’t be so good if they didn’t know how to launch this well, so you can either visit the PLOT website, their online shop, the Facebook page or check it our irl at Beyond the Valley, Newburgh Street, Carnaby Street. Luna & Curious, Brick Lane, both in London.

 

Not just another brown bag

 

Newspaper bag by theindiashop.co.uk

Cleaning up my room made me come across a little souvenir from my Munich trip in September. I got this cute, paper bag when I bought some stuff at Aroma (great lunch place with an awesome collection of crazy gift and gadgets, must see when in Munich!). The bag is made of recycled Indian newspapers. It’s produced by a NGO which donates all income to street children around the Delhi station. Cool looking, eco-friendly, humanitarian bag, win³!

 

Memories 1999-2009

I’m not a collector at all (I actually enjoy throwing things away as I hate clutter) but the one thing I have always kept diligently since I was 15 are tickets of things I have visited and done. Think tickets from concerts, theatre, opera, movies, restaurants cards, boarding passes etc. Earlier this year I decided to give them a better place than an old box so I bought a Moleskine book. Had to work today (yes, I know it’s Sunday) but as a little distraction I put  all tickets in the book . Few more pages to be filled before it’s full, making it a great overview of all the cool things I have seen and done the past 10 years.

Moleskine book 1999-2009 (here tickets from last three months)

Highlights: Pinkpop in 2000 (my very first festival), ISH Skate Event in 2001 (a ramp in a theatre, that’s cool), all my boarding passes to Copenhagen and back since 2005 (did an exchange there twice and it feels like home), Lux Debate U.S. ‘04 elections with Maarten van Rossem (very exciting times), my BahnCards 50 since 2005 (studied in and love Germany and went there numerous times with this travel card), Tina Dickow in 2008 (brilliant concert in New York City) and Kings of Leon in 2009 (first time seeing them live). Hope my next Moleskine book will fill itself with great memories as well!